Slacker & Steve's Blog

OPP: Not Liking One of my Step-kids

by Slacker And Steve,posted Sep 12 2012 4:47PM

Photo Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Jan met the man of her dreams and is now the step-mom of two kids. She gets along great with the son…but she absolutely can’t stand the daughter! The high-maintenance eight year-old daughter is manipulative, judgmental, does not clean up, and is fighting for female dominance. Her new husband does not see it. Slacker thinks someone has to be the adult and Jan is it! “This is not a buffet, you either take it all or you get none of it.” Steve thinks everyone is blended and so many people have this OPP. He also thinks that they should send her to military school. Should Jan allow the eight year-old to get under her skin? Steve wants to ground the eight year old and Slacker wants to ground Jan. What is your advice?

Obviously you guys or your callers have never had to deal with one of these children. I have a deegree in Early Childhood Development , I minored in Special Needs and Gifted, I have two sons of my own, so I thought I could handle anything when it came to raising a child.
Then you get a child 4 yrs old, who totally desocrates your world, she wants all your attention, when she doesn't get it , she destroys things, she poops in her hand and smears it on walls, furnature, and herself. She has been kicked out of every childcare center within 20 miles of our home, so I am not able to work, we can not take her into a store for fear of scenes and tantrums. She has threatened to kill my boys, she said "she is my mom now, not yours so don't call her mom "and we found her with a kitchen knife outside my sons bedroom...3 years of therapy, and she still hurts herself for attention.I CAN'T GO TO THE BATHROOM WITHOUT HER SCREAMING OUTSIDE THE DOOR. So don't be so quick to judge, yes I agree that Jen needs to grow up and try to build a relationship with her step daughter,and the guy who's step son isn't man enough for him...these people don't know what a problem child is. You guys don't have any experience with problem children to be talking so in general about child rearing." It's a child ", waaaayyyy to general a comment. I haven't given up, we still do everything we can, but our boys are suffering because she takes up all of our time, they resent us and her for it. I know she is not a demon, but I defenitely can understand the termonolgy.